I'm using the 30 day trial and so far Dreamweaver is a lot like Namo WebEditor 2006 (without all of the bugs and slow loading of HTML files). I'm saving up my money and will buy Dreamweaver in about 2 months if everything goes OK.

Well, Namo WebEditor 2006 lets you click on a paragraph in the WYSIWYG pane, press Shift + F2 and a Copy Format dialog box appears. It will let you copy the Paragraph style, Character attributes, Font color, Background color, Table properties, Cell properties, and Hyperlink. It uses check boxes and you can select just one or even all of them if you want.

I mostly use it to copy and paste classes. I click on the paragraph, press Shift + F2, then click the OK button since paragraph style is already selected from previous use. From then on, all I have to do is click on a paragraph or select mutiple paragraphs and press F2 to 'paste' the class. Simple. Easy. Fast.

Does Dreamweaver CS6 have something similar to that? From what I've read so far, older versions of Dreamwaver weren't as user-friendly, but by now, Dreamweaver must have something similar. A program that costs almost 400 dollars can't let a program that costs less than 100 dollars kick its butt. There must be some quick way to copy and paste classes with Dreamweaver CS6 and I just can't find it yet because I'm new to the software.

Yes DW has everything you are looking for it and more. For example you have several paragraphs set up on your page and you have meticulously created styles for paragraphs. The easiest way to apply these styles is to work in design view and then select one of the paragraphs of interest and then at the bottom of the window you will see the properties window with an item called class. Click on the drop-down list and select your class and voilla your class is automatically applied to that paragraph. See this picture:

You will need to click on the above image to get it magnified.

Hope this gives you the idea.

To buy DW, I always advice people to do so from Amazon because they generally have better value for most products.

Thanks, but the paragraphs I want to change are also links, so doing that puts the class in the link instead of in the <p> section. If I highlight all of the links and do it, Dreamweaver sticks the class in the div that surrounds the links. I can do it by hand in the code, but I was hoping there'd be a quicker copy and paste way of doing it. If buggy Namo WebEditor 2006 can do it, Dreamweaver CS6 (in 2012) should be able to do something similar.

Thanks, but the paragraphs I want to change are also links, so doing that puts the class in the link instead of in the <p> section. If I highlight all of the links and do it, Dreamweaver sticks the class in the div that surrounds the links. I can do it by hand in the code, but I was hoping there'd be a quicker copy and paste way of doing it. If buggy Namo WebEditor 2006 can do it, Dreamweaver CS6 (in 2012) should be able to do something similar.

If your paragraphs are also links then you set two styles for that paragraph: 1) for the paragraph and 2) for the links;

We are working here with hypotheticals and unless you have some concrete examples it is impossible to give you ideas how to do things in DW. Please post an example or a link to a page which can be recreated here with instructions. Make sure the page you create here isn't too big to make it unworkable. These are support forums so we are limited in how much can be copied and pasted here.

DW is tool to aid you to do things quickly which can otherwise be also done in plain text editors. I know people who will never touch tools like DW or Expressiona Web because they are quite comfortable with text editors which they have been using for years.

Good luck and come back with any technical questions you have about DW.

If you look on the right side of the page, you'll see an area called Pages in this Subsection. I was using a different class and wanted to quickly copy and paste a new class, similar to the way Namo WebEditor 2006 does. Since there were only 4 lines to change, I simply edited the code, but if I ever have a larger number of lines to change, a format copy and paste would be faster and easier. I'm surprised that Dreamweaver doesn't have a format copy and paste. (Selecting a class from a drop-down menu isn't as fast as hitting F2.)

I can always go back to Namo WebEditor 2006 when I need a format copy and paste, but I was hoping that Dreamweaver would have that included by now.

Speaking of Dreamweaver, being able to find and replace a chunk of code in only the pages I select is a great feature. Namo WebEditor 2006 can only find and replace a singe line and the global find and replace won't let you select pages. It's either a single page or all of them (unless they are in separate folders). It's OK for small jobs, but I usually need to replace more than that. I also like how fast and easy it is to upload pages to my web site with Dreamweaver.

It seems Dreamweaver doesn't have everything I require, but it's already saving me a lot of time and trouble, so it will be worth buying.

Many of those errors are from YouTube. One of these days I'll start over when I have the time, but your post does nothing to answer my question or explain why Dreamweaver can't do a format copy and paste in 2012 when other less expensive products have been doing it for many years. Pro-level software that includes a WYSIWYG editor should allow us to copy and paste classes and more.

I know some people want to defend the product to the death because they spent so much money on it and don't want to believe it's not perfect, but it could have a few more tools to make it even better. Still doesn't change the fact that I'm going to buy it in a month or two. I can see that Dreamweaver doesn't have everything I require yet, but there is enough there to make working on my web site faster and easier, so it's worth the money.

Faster and easier is my main reason for buying Dreamweaver CS6. Adding a format copy and paste to the next version would make it even faster and easier to use.

If you look on the right side of the page, you'll see an area called Pages in this Subsection. I was using a different class and wanted to quickly copy and paste a new class, similar to the way Namo WebEditor 2006 does. Since there were only 4 lines to change, I simply edited the code, but if I ever have a larger number of lines to change, a format copy and paste would be faster and easier. I'm surprised that Dreamweaver doesn't have a format copy and paste. (Selecting a class from a drop-down menu isn't as fast as hitting F2.)

Ok I tried to recreate the page in DW and it is pretty easy to do what you are saying. "copy and paste" may not be the right terminology. I normally use "Apply a class" and you can see from this picture that I have access to the entire style sheet in DW:

Click on the image to get a blow-up of the main parts. What I did is simply select a particular text and then clicked on the class section in the properties window and you can see it is displaying the classes and so it is a matter of selecting the right class to apply in that particular instance.

I hope you get the idea but you should take this in steps to get familiar with DW. Have you done David Power's lessons on DW? It is worth a quick read because he gives you all the instructions and practice files to go with it.

With Namo WebEditor 2006, I could copy the offsitefull class from an existing paragrapgh and 'paste' it anywhere by hitting F2. I'm not getting rid of Namo Web editor after I buy Dreamweaver, so I can always use it if I need to copy and paste CSS styles and other things. It's just too bad Dreamwaever doesn't have such a time saving useful feature. Below is the Copy Format dialog box and info from the help file in case anyone is interested:

Copying and pasting formatting

You can use the clipboard to copy formatting from one element to another element. Items you can copy and paste include character formatting, paragraph formatting, image attributes, table properties, cell properties, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and chart properties.

To copy and paste formatting

Place the insertion point in the paragraph, word, table, or table cell, or select the image, whose formatting you want to copy.

On the Edit menu, click CopyFormat, or press Shift+F2.

Select the types of properties you want to, and click OK.

Place the insertion point in the paragraph, table, or table cell, or select the text or image, to which you want to copy the formatting.

On the Edit menu, click Paste Format, or press F2.

When pasting a background color into a table, Namo WebEditor will prompt you to specify whether to apply the background color to the whole table, the current cell, or the whole document.

Copy Format dialog box

Character attributes

Copies all character attributes, such as font, size, style, color, and all others that can be assigned in the Character Format dialog box.

Paragraph style

Copies all paragraph attributes, such as alignment, line height, style, and all others that can be assigned in the Paragraph Format dialog box.

Font color

Copies only the font color. If Character attributes is selected, the font color is copied regardless of the state of this check box.

Background color

Copies only the background color. If Character attributes is selected, the background color is copied regardless of the state of this check box.

Table properties

Copies the properties of the table containing the cursor. These are all the properties that can be assigned in the Table tab of the Table Properties dialog box, and can only be pasted into another table.

Cell properties

Copies the properties of the table cell containing the cursor. These are all the properties that can be assigned in the Cell tab of the Table Properties dialog box, and can only be pasted onto another table cell.

Hyperlink

Copies the hyperlink at the insertion point.

Bookmark

Copies the bookmark at the insertion point.

Image layout

Copies the layout attributes of the selected image. These are all the properties that can be assigned using the Style button of the Image Properties dialog box, and can only be pasted onto another image.

Chart type

Copies the chart-specific attributes of the selected chart. These are all the properties that can be assigned in the Chart Properties dialog box, except values. These attributes can only be pasted onto another chart.

All attributes

Copies all the attributes of the item at the insertion point (or the selected item).

Note: The Copy Format command is not available if text is selected. Before using the command, simply place the insertion point within the item whose attributes you want to copy; do not select the item. To copy the attributes of an image or chart, click the image or chart so that its resize handles are visible, then use the Copy Format command.

I suggested what I posted above using the official form. Until Dreamweaver has something similar to a format copy and paste, I figured out that I can have the best of both worlds right now. I open the same page in Dreamweaver CS6 and Namo WebEditor 2006 and make sure to save whenever I make a change. Since both programs recognize that a change has occurred, I always have the latest version open in both programs. What Dreamweaver lacks, I can do with Namo WebEditor in offline mode and I can do everything else with Dreamweaver, including uploading my pages faster than I ever could with Namo WebEditor.

You know, that could be a proprietary operation of the Namo software. It's possible DW simply can't add that functionality without stepping on somebody's patent. I know Adobe goes ape when somebody makes things a little too Adobe-esque.

Never know, could be the case.

Either way, I don't see a way, using keyboard shortcuts, to do what you're looking for in DW.